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Today was the last day of hiking for my boots. I'm very sad at this as they have been a really good pair of boots and I have grown especially attatched to them over the last few months. Though the leather and soles are still servicable the Gortex lining on the inside had come adrift. On top of this I don't expect to be doing much off trail hiking on the remainder of my journey around the world. I've decided to leave them in Argentina rather than lug around 3kg of leather and vibram that now aren't waterproof (and dig into my heel).

Eulogy to My Boots

They were good boots and stalwart travelling companions. In their time with me they have travelled, seen and done more than most people on the planet.

• They have visited 16 countries in four different contients. (Australia, China, Fiji, Los United States, Canada, Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragura, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chile and Argentina.

• The have gone on some classic hikes - Kalalau Trial, Decended into the Grand Canyon (Plateu Point), Yosimite Point, Angle's Landing in Zion, the Inca trail to Machu Picchu, hiked the 'W'- circcuit in the Torres del Paine, Hiked Yoho valley, around Lake Louise and to Eiffel Lake in Canada, to Cradle Mountain in Tassie and also into the Walls of Jeruslam, the Cape to Cape trail (WA), they've stood on the top of the 10-highest peaks in Australia and finally hiked around the Glaciers National Park in Argentina

• Aside from the obivious hiking duties they've also stood in some famous places, they've walked on Aztec, Mayan and Inca ruins (and many other less famous precolumbian tribes), stood on the summit of the world's tallest mountain, walked on glaciers in North and South America, boogied all night in locations such as San Cristobal de las Casas (Mexico), Sucre (Bolivia) and San Pedro (Chile), visited the Amazon basin, walked across active volcanic areas in Guatemala and Ecuador, stood on the salt plains of Umyui, ventured into high altitude (3,500+) a number of times and extreme altitude (5,000m+) once and travelled across the Nalabor plain.

I will miss them......reflecting back on their life span we've achieved a lot together and I'm sure if they could talk they'd tell some interesting stories from some of these adventures. Despite my parting company with then they boots may still have some useful life helping another. They have been given to an Argentinian mountain guide who will donate them to porters starting out on Aconcagula. So they should get a few more trips in before they are finally scrapped. I'm sure that they'll have a few more stories yet!

Goodbye Boots, you won't be forgotton.